Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Preface: Distrust and Verify

Introduction: A Tale of Two Cities

Part I Chosen Peoples

1 Anglo-Saxon Attitudes

2 Vive la France

3 Strangers

Part II Reversal of Fortunes

4 New Look

5 De Gaulle Redux

6 Unmerrie England

7 Running on Empty

Part III Bids

8 Unshakable, Constant, Effective

9 Supermac

10 Another Harold

11 Bash on Regardless

Conclusion: Endgame

Timeline

Appendix 1.

Appendix 2. Foreign Secretaries and Foreign Ministers

Appendix 3. Foreign Office and Quai d’Orsay

Appendix 4. European Economic Growth, 1950–80

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index

Illustrations

4.1 The March of Time: The New France 1946

5.1 General de Gaulle walking down the Champs Elysees, Georges Bidault a step behind on left, 25 August 1944.

5.2 Foreign Minister Michel Debre with his predecessor Maurice Couve de Murville, 2 June 1968 82

8.1 Winston Churchill in Paris, with his daughter Mary and British ambassador Alfred Duff Cooper, 1945.

8.2 French foreign minister Bidault and British foreign secretary Bevin sign Anglo-French alliance in Dunkirk, 4 March 1947

8.3 French foreign minister Robert Schuman and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, 27 May 1952.

9.1 British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and French Prime Minister Guy Mollet, 9 March 1957

9.2 Prime Minister Macmillan and Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd welcomed to Paris by General de Gaulle, 30 June 1958

11.1 Probing the Dutch in the Hague, foreign secretary Brown and premier Wilson, 27 February 1967 – note the body language.

11.2 Sir Christopher Soames, UK ambassador to France, 22 September 1968